Reading anew: What We Can Learn from Chinese-Jewish Comparisons  

Author: Aryeh Amihay, Shanghai Normal University

Chinese and Jewish traditions, both ancient and complex, reveal parallels and contrasts that shed light on how different cultures address ethics, ritual, and social structure. Aryeh Amihay, an American-educated Israeli professor teaching at Shanghai Normal University, draws upon personal experiences in China and Israel to explore Confucian values of harmony (he) and ritual (li), which serve as guides for balanced living, alongside the Jewish halakhah (religious law), with its emphasis on distinctions—between sacred and profane, permitted and forbidden. Confucianism seeks equilibrium within opposites; Judaism emphasizes clear boundaries. Yet both see ritual as a pathway to shaping upright behavior and thus reflect profoundly on human imperfection and the aspiration toward moral balance.